In recent years, much effort has focused on the development of degradable thermosets; however, high cost and relatively low performance have become serious barriers to their practical applications. In this work, degradable thermosets based on imine/secondary amine dynamic bonds were prepared by amine aldehyde condensation. Specifically, terephthaldehyde and various diamines were used as monomers, and triethylenetetramine was selected as a novel cross-linker to prepare the degradable polyaminal. Because of the −NH 2 and −NH−CH 2 −CH 2 −NH− groups in triethylenetetramine, a hybrid imine/imidazolidine cross-linking structure was obtained. Thanks to the rigid ring structure of imidazolidine, the polyaminal represents higher cross-linking density and mechanical properties compared with common thermosets based on Schiff base. Importantly, the present strategy reduced the preparation cost by ∼60% due to the usage of a quite low-priced cross-linker. The results showed that the obtained degradable polyaminal exhibits superior properties, T g (120−150 °C), T d (249−277 °C), and tensile strength (52−64 MPa). Moreover, the polyaminal/carbon fiber composite could be completely degraded under mild acidic conditions within 1 h, leading to a rapid and nondestructive recycling of valuable fiber. This study is believed to offer an alternate strategy to set up a green framework for highperformance degradable thermosets that can potentially be used in commercial and industrial production.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.